No Jurisdiction: Varanasi Court Dismisses Criminal Complaint Against Kunal Kamra Which Alleged That His Tweet Insulted Indian Flag

A local Court in UP's Varanasi on Wednesday dismissed a criminal complaint filed against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra alleging that he insulted the Indian flag by tweeting a morphed picture of the Supreme Court replacing the tricolor atop it with the flag of a political party. The Court of Judicial Magistrate Diwakar Kumar dismissed the complaint as the alleged offence was not committed within its local jurisdiction. "After taking into consideration of the whole facts and circumstances of the case this Court is of the view that alleged offence does not appear to have been committed within the jurisdiction of this Court. In such circumstances above application U/s 156(3) Cr.P.C. deserves to be dismissed," the Judge said. The Top Court's bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah has already issued notice to Kamra on the petitions seeking criminal contempt action against him, returnable within 6 weeks. Kamra had posted a picture of the Supreme Court dressed in saffron colour with the flag of the ruling party, the BJP. He also published several controversial remark against the Supreme Court such as 'honour has left the building (Supreme Court) long back' and 'Supreme Court of the country is the most Supreme joke of the country'. The Attorney General for India had found these tweets to be 'highly objectionable' and he stated that it is time that people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972. In the present case, Advocate Saurabh Tiwari was aggrieved by non-registration of a FIR against Kamra, by the local Police. He had approached the Varanasi Court stating that Kamra deliberately published a morphed photo of Indian National Flag with an intention to insult it. He had also contended that Kamra's actions hurt the feeling of the people of this country and cause contempt and disrepute to the Indian National Flag. He stated that Kamra should be booked for offences under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act, 1971 and under Sections 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) of IPC. "It is clear that offence committed on social media platform (Public Platform) and against Indian National Flag then question of jurisdiction cannot be raised because offence presumed to be committed (In Varanasi also)," Tiwari had said in his complaint. Click Here To Download Order Read Order

No Jurisdiction: Varanasi Court Dismisses Criminal Complaint Against Kunal Kamra Which Alleged That His Tweet Insulted Indian Flag

Akshita Saxena

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